Dani has an amazing essay in today's LA Times about how to endure as a writer. I'd highly recommend it to all Sirenlanders. And if you missed Dani's appearance on the Today Show yesterday, you can go here to see the clip!
I first heard of Sirenland on a cold Saturday in March of 2007. I saw an ad in Poets & Writers and immediately went to the website. I had loved Dani's novel Family History, had been a subscriber of One Story for years, and had been to Le Sirenuse twice. I could not believe that the applications had closed before I even knew about the workshop.
I tried to apply anyway. I even sent Michael an email, explaining I could come if anyone had to drop out at the last minute. He answered within an hour that he and Dani and Jacob were already in Italy but that he would keep my number handy.
That Saturday I spent hours reading every word of every post on the blog, and I felt like I was going too. All the preparations were so exciting--the Italian lessons, the manuscripts arriving, the packing lists. It's all still here in the Archives for February and March of 2007.
This year will be my third at Sirenland. Last year my husband Cal came with me, and he's coming again this year. I'm happy to answer any questions about what to bring or what to wear or traveling or anything. If you'd like to see who I am, you can find me at my blog, Catching Days. There are a few posts there about Sirenland too.
One of my favorite things to do while in Positano is after the morning workshop to climb the 1700 stairs for lunch at a little trattoria high above the sea. In 2008 we climbed during a torrential rain storm that turned the stairs into waterfalls. Last year we found a new trattoria where the brothers cook from their garden and are very generous with platters of desserts and liqueurs on the house! So be sure to put comfortable shoes on your packing list.
I look forward to seeing familiar faces and meeting new ones.
Sirenland is happy to announce the winner of the 2010 Sirenland Fellowship: Bruce Machart
Bruce Machart's fiction has appeared in One Story, Zoetrope, Story, Glimmer Train, and elsewhere, and has been anthologized in Best Stories of the American West. This October, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will publish his debut novel, The Wake of Forgiveness, and his collection of stories, entitled Men in the Making, will follow in the fall of 2011. A graduate of the MFA program at Ohio State University, Machart currently lives and teaches in his hometown of Houston.
The Sirenland fellowship provides travel, room and board and fees for attending The Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy. It is given to a writer who is in the process of completing a project, but has not published a book before March, 2010. The fellowship cannot be applied for; candidates are nominated by a panel of publishing professionals. All entries are read blind and the winner chosen by Dani Shapiro.
Congratulations to Said. When Skateboards Will be Free has been chosen by the NY Times' Dwight Garner as one of the 10 Best Books of 2009.
'When Skateboards Will Be Free: A Memoir of a Political Childhood'
By SAÏD SAYRAFIEZADEH
This delicate, discerning memoir is about growing up with parents who were committed members of the Socialist Workers Party; it reads like a peculiar bedtime story. (The Dial Press, $22 )
When Peggy and I entered Glendale Civic Center last Saturday night, we knew two of my stories had already been declared winners in Arizona Authors 29th annual literary contest. But we didn't know at what level. First? Second? Third? Honorable Mention? (The contest officials make it a practice of holding off the specifics until the formal dinner is over--the better to increase attendance.)
The dinner turned out to be far more fascinating than I expected. I sat next to an Arizona woman and her husband, a native of Afghanistan. Her book on her 10 years in Af'stan with him, their kids and his mother (who took care of the kids while she worked) won her a Pulitzer nomination. She held me spellbound with her tales of their food and customs. Then it came time for the awards.
I'm happy to say that my "El Caballo Blanco" took First Prize in Fiction.
My Memoir entry--"Jimimy Cricket" (you recall it was featured in the NY Times about a year ago) won Second Prize.
I also walked out with the most money--the princely sum of $150. Spread that amount over the number of hours I spent writing and editing these stories, and somebody's in serious violation of our Minimum Wage Laws.
We stayed overnight at our daughter's Scottsdale home and celebrated by taking Annie and David to a well earned Sunday morning breakfast.
Peggy and I are very poor photographers. Nevertheless, Peggy did get a shot of me at the mike. I'll scan it over in the next day or two.
If he ever gets around to sending the photo we'll post it here.
(Apparently the photo of Bob didn't come out very well, so we'll post this one of Bob doing his Dr. Evil impression by the pool at Le Sirenuse to make up for it)
Hi Everyone, Come see Said - recipient of the 2008 Sirenland followship - read at a fantastic and free event coming up in Brooklyn! Details are below, hope to see you there! Nina
Date: Monday, November 16, 2009 Time: 8:00pm - 10:00pm Location: Franklin Park Bar and Beer Garden -- Crown Heights, Brooklyn Street: 618 St. John's Place, between Franklin and Classon Avenues City/Town: Brooklyn, NY
DRINK SPECIALS Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5 to Franklin Ave www.franklinparkbrooklyn.com
November's readers tell tales of unconventional families -- sex-crazed moms, teenage aliens, rabid socialist parents and a gun-packing Vietnam vet dad.
Featuring: AMY SOHN (Prospect Park West, My Old Man, Run Catch Kiss) SAID SAYRAFIEZADEH (When Skateboards Will Be Free) JOBIE HUGHES (I Am Number Four/young adult series, Agony at Dawn) LIANNE STOKES (Rejected: Tales of the Failed, Dumped and Canceled, comedian)
CELEBRATING 2008 SIRENLANDER GREG CHANGNON AT A CELEBRATION OF WORDS
By Lizzie Bradbury (Sirenland 08/09)
What a treat it was to meet up with fellow Sirenlander and good friend, Greg Changnon, in Nashville for the “Southern Festival of Books: A Celebration of the Written Word.” Greg had been invited to be on a panel of three authors reading portions of their stories from Best New American Voices 2010, which was edited by our own beloved Dani Shapiro.
The Southern Festival is an annual three-day literary event that welcomed more than 200 authors from throughout the nation for readings, panel discussions and book signings. Reynolds Price calls the literary festival the “most elegantly organized and realized” that he knows of.
So it only figures that Greg Changnon would be at the festival as one of the authors, elegant and organized man that he is, right?
Greg brought his support team from Atlanta that included truly beautiful wife Pola and charming, adorable daughters, Ava (9) and Jenny (13). Ava and Jenny were antsy with pride as they waited for their dad to have his turn on the panel. Throughout Greg’s reading, all three Changnon females exchanged knowing looks, nudges and lots of smiles.
I sat a bit further back with my family feeling every bit as antsy and proud as a Changnon. Fortunately, I had 3-year-old Annabelle Bradbury in my lap to keep me firmly pinned down.
Greg did Sirenland proud. He read with a professional confidence and engaging wit. The audience laughed, sighed and clapped at all of the appropriate places.
Greg’s story, Half Sister, is an emotional journey of twists and turns that chases down the dysfunctional dynamics consuming a grieving widow and her two teenaged daughters. The story, told from 12-year-old Joan’s point of view, primarily takes place in the back seat of a 1973 Cadillac as “Mother” drives her unwilling daughters to meet their mysterious half sister for the first time. Unsure who to blame for the bad hand she has been dealt, Joan, rages internally and externally.
“Joan lowered the bottle. Sometimes she thought there was a sort of weather in everyone – climates hidden beneath the bones – and her weather was bad. Cumulonimbus, thundersqualls, mackerel skies – words Joan had learned when her father flicked from one weather channel to another …”
Greg kindly agreed to an interview following the festival.
Q) Greg, so how was it sitting up there in the fancy Tennessee State Capitol chambers with an audience of eager literary types waiting for you to read from Half-Sister? Nervous? Excited? If Buzz Aldrin (one of the other writers at the festival) could do it, I knew I could too. I rarely get nervous in front of an audience anymore after teaching middle-schoolers. If you can survive standing in front of an angry crowd of pre-teens, everything else is butter.
No nerves, but great excitement; it was a tremendous experience. It felt like another great event in the journey that started with Sirenland.
Q) What were the seeds of imagination that started your story, Half Sister?
I first began the story over 13 years ago when my wife was first pregnant. Imagining what children were like, I started with two kids in a car on a long drive. I wanted to prepare myself for fatherhood so I thought of possibly the worst family situation there is. The story petered out because those kids -- two girls -- had very little life to them. They were quite boring, with good manners and pink cheeks. Obviously, I was hoping for children just like that.
When I returned to the story last year, one of my girls was about to become a teenager and the other was 8 going on 18. Now I knew how wicked and strange and fun and fascinating kids really were, and the two fictional girls came alive.
Q) Interesting that the complexity and unpredictability of your own daughters' personalities helped to bring Half Sister to life. Are either Phoebe or Joan based on your lovely and engaging daughters, Ava and Jenny?
There's a little bit of them in those characters. But Phoebe and Joan are exaggerations. I hope.
Q) There is a scene in your story where Joan locks herself in the gas station women's restroom and Phoebe goes into the men's bathroom to try to talk to Joan through the vent:
Phoebe had to talk to Joan through a vent in the empty men's room.
She tired not to look at the machine that sold stuff she didn't want to think about. "Maybe she'll like me, "Phoebe shouted, through the metal screen. "And you like me." Phoebe let her lips touch the tile on the wall below the vent. It tasted like ginger. She knew this was bad, disgusting even, but she was getting tired of hovering on the right side of decency. "You do like me, right? Phoebe asked, her tongue skimming the porcelain.
When you read this section of the story your daughters looked over at each other and smiled with some kind of recognition? It seemed to strike a chord with them. Had one of your daughters told you that bathroom tile tasted like ginger?
No. I know I should respect the writers' code of honor and perform as much research as possible. But I nor anyone I know has ever licked the tile in the men's bathroom at a gas station.
Q) Why did you choose to set the story in 1973?
Some weird bit of a story came to me -- the girls watching GUNSMOKE with their father. I just ran with it from there.
Q) Are you most comfortable writing stories that are set in the past? And if so, why?
Not so much. I get very nervous about the accuracy of the details in stories set in the past. I'm terrified of anachronisms and that reader who will throw the book across the room if GUNSMOKE went off the air before 1973.
Q) Only after her husband dies does "Mother" tell Joan and Phoebe that they have a half sister. While it is easy to surmise why "Mother" wanted to keep this earlier child a secret from her husband, what do you believe is the underlying motivation for her wanting to connect with with the daughter of her first marriage now?
Half-Sister is now the opening chapter of a longer narrative so as I've been working, the character of Joan and Phoebe's mother has deepened and I've discovered many things about her. Her motivations are many: fears of a lonely future, the memory of a past love, but mostly it's the desire for an ally.
Q) I, along with others, felt that the end of Half Sister seems a little abrupt. We wanted to know more about this ordinary, yet very complex, family of three.
Actually, that's one thing the series editor, Natalie Danford, wanted to adjust about the story. Initially, the end of the piece was even more ambiguous than it is in the anthology. She felt it read more like a novel chapter than a short story. Besides helping me discover a more effective last moment for HALF-SISTER, Natalie introduced me to the possibility that these characters could live on. And so, I've pushed Phoebe and Joan through a very strange adolescence in the last year. They're barely making it out of their teens.
Q) During the question and answer period following your reading you spoke of some of the struggles of being a writer that many, if not all of us, face. You had success with being published ten years ago and then there was a dry spell. However, over the past two years, recognition of your talent has come from many different directions. What do you account for that down period and what advice do you have for those of us who are experiencing a similar frustration?
In 1998, I got my MFA in San Francisco then moved across the country with my wife and newborn child. I lost a sense of the valuable writers' community that we all need to protect us from doubt, insecurity, laziness. Then another child came and I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to stay home and hang out with my kids. Life sort of happened and other things got in the way. With more time spent away from writing, the harder it got to actually get myself in the chair. The hardest thing about writing is the effort to start -- the first five minutes of a day's work is tortuous to me. The first five minutes got harder and harder the more time I spent away. But now that I'm back writing regularly, that transition has become easier -- well, not easier -- let's just say less tortuous.
Q) I was honored that you asked for my reaction to early drafts of Half Sister leading up to the final published story. It was fascinating to witness the changes brought on by the editing process. How did the editing process go for you?
I was thrilled and honored to work with Dani on the story and then later with Natalie Danford. Because I was in great hands, the editing process was effortless. I learned so much about my writing and how HALF-SISTER worked from their advice and suggestions.
Q) How did Sirenland 2008 play a role in your renewed passion for writing and current success?
It played the starring role. Not only did Sirenland introduce to me a group of wonderfully engaged writers, but it also allowed me to feel so much more positive about my own material. It gave me the kick-in-the-pants that I needed. I went to Italy as a teacher who writes and came back a writer who teaches.
Q) Tell us the ways in which Dani Shapiro, your Sirenland workshop leader, helped to restore your faith in yourself as a writer?
Dani's kindness and generosity moved me deeply, and her insights into my writing helped me see that I was getting a bunch of things right. She was brilliant in determining my strengths and my blocks not only in my writing but also in my creative life.
Q) What advice from Hannah Tinti affected your writing and writing process?
Hannah is such a beautifully positive presence. She is an inspirational example of someone who lives to embrace the art of writing. I was extraordinarily anxious arriving at Sirenland but her welcome –which included an acknowledgement of the story I submitted—made me feel instantly a part of this community. I also remember one of her amazing tidbits about craft that I now treasure. She spoke of the importance of props in a scene; how focusing on a crucial object—an empty soda pop bottle, a mother’s bulky purse—brings considerable power, meaning and richness to the scene.
Q) What specific advice did Dani give you in terms of craft that had the biggest impact on your writing after Sirenland?
Dani has the amazing ability to see you in your writing. She zeros in on the writer as a way into the writing. And nobody is better mixing sharp craft wisdom with specific feedback on workshop stories. The wisest advice I’ve ever received was Dani’s challenge to live fully in the work.
Boy, I can sure relate to that. I get all teary eyed just thinking about how, after so many years of writing, I met Dani and Hannah and honestly, for the first time ever, I felt like a “writer.” And huge inspiration also came from Jim Shepard (2009) even though he wasn’t my workshop leader. He was there for all of us.
Q) How did Sirenland 2008 differ from other conferences you have attended and why do you think Sirenland works so well? (And no – I don’t mean the views of the sea from the Le Sirenuse balconies, the amazing Carla and Antonio Sersale, open mic night at their beautiful home, the unbelievable food and gorgeous atmosphere of the restaurant, the kind and reassuring workshop staff and fellow writers, the walk down to the beach and long lunches over red wine, Allison, Jackie, Jenny, Roberto, music and dancing late at night in the bar … none of that! – the other stuff)
It was the first experience I've had where there was absolutely no hustling. It's not the job fair most conferences end up becoming. It's more about relationships -- relationships with mentors, with fellow writers, and with your own work -- than it is about product. And the perks aren't half bad. I recommend the plunge pool in the health spa. It felt almost metaphoric.
Q) Your short story, “How the Nurse Feels,” was a very sensitive, serious yet humorous look into the life of an adolescent girl who ends up learning a difficult adult life lesson as she researches her role as the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet. “How The Nurse Feels” was adapted into a musical and was presented in 2008 at the 13th Annual ASCAP Foundation/Disney Musical Theater Workshop. Any idea of when we’ll see “How The Nurse Feels” up in the Lights on Broadway?
The fantastic creative team – the composer, lyricist and book writer—are actively looking for investors. It’s a tough market, they say.
Well, Greg, I can say on behalf of all of us 2008 Sirenlanders we are very proud of this recent achievement and know you'll be sitting on the "other side of the panel" at many more writing conferences and book fairs in the future.
Thank you, Lizzie. And I can say on behalf of everyone, you are one special lady. Promise that I can interview you back when your book, BEAUTIFUL FREAK, hits the shelves. See you at Le Sirenuse.
And as always, thanks to Michael Maren for his never ending patience with technical support. L
When I realized that the time had rolled around for writers to apply to the Sirenland 2010 Conference, I felt a little bereft - it's not the lot of the Fellow to return - and also felt a desire to encourage everyone for whom it seems like it might be possible to go, to apply, because of the unique quality of the work that happens there.
I'll admit that when I learned last January that I had been selected as the 2009 Fellow, my initial focus was on the trip-to-Italy-week-in-a-super-deluxe-hotel-in-Positano aspect of the award. When you're used to gatherings of writers that include unnervingly suspect sheets slipping off plastic mattresses and meals that require a certain transcendent attitude just to ingest them, it's a little tough not to see the promise of five-star luxuries as the defining feature of Sirenland. It's true that during my initial phone call with Dani Shapiro, she said impressive things about the focus being on the work and about the care that goes into the selection of both participants and faculty, but have you SEEN the website for the hotel Le Sirenuse?
I'm not going to lie. It's even more gorgeous in person. Fantasize about a lovely setting, now double the beauty, triple the hospitality, add exquisite food, have a few drinks if that's your pleasure and you begin to have a sense of the physical delights. But it's by no means only the surroundings that set this conference apart or, ultimately, that give it the quality it has.
As the Fellow, I was in Dani's workshop and I can honestly say that it was among the very few finest workshops in which I've ever participated. The diverse nature of the works presented was such that not only did each participant receive excellent readings of his or her own piece, but the week as a whole became a kind of mini-course on structure - in the contexts of both fiction and memoir. There was none of the all too common workshop bloodletting that goes on, but for anyone who assumes that a cushy surrounding comes with cushy critiques as well, not a chance. The questions asked and suggestions offered were serious and incisive while also being consistently grounded in the apparent intent of the author. And I heard much the same from the participants in the workshops led by Jim Shepard and Peter Cameron - with an important assist for all three from Hannah Tinti.
One of my favorite things about the conference was the way in which the conversation through the week, over meals, over drinks, in odd corners of the hotel, became less and less about how lovely the view, how delicious the food, and more and more the odd, awkward sort one often sees among writers. One person is talking about their plans for revision, the other is frowning, half lsitening, half realizing she ought to add another scene to her story. And then often, at some point, both realize that there's a way in which their individual musings relate, that by discussing the revision, the added scene, together, they can help one another. Day by day, you could hear the work taking up more and more space in everyone's thoughts, see a hotel full of guests become a community of writers.
There are more things to praise - the readings, the individual meetings, the presentations on publishing and screenwriting, the parties, the parties, the parties - but my main point here is just that while you're poring over the website for Le Sirenuse, admiring the exquisite marble bathrooms and candlelit dining room, keep in mind that if you're lucky enough to attend, at some point, all that elegance and all that beauty will magically become wonderful, welcome side-benefits of a conference that itself, most of all, will benefit your work.
We asked some of last years' Sirenland Attendees to write a few words about the conference if they felt moved to do so. Here's a sampling: (Sirenland 2010 will be open for applications from September 15 - October 31, 2009.)
"Dani is a truly great leader. Kind and generous and smart. She sets a tone of exploration and inquiry, and she addresses each piece with equal respect and consideration. And, above all, she is unfailingly tender - with the writer, the words and the intention.
Also, Hannah, you're awesome. You have such a great, happy, light-touch with the your responsibilities through the week. Michael too. The feeling from the top is that this is a kind and fun place where real work can be accomplished.
Sirenland is unparalleled in its generosity to writers and its gracious commitment to helping participants to excavate their truest voice. By exploring structure, tone, intention and impulse, the conference makes room for both craft and art with the backdrop of a stunning setting." —Tessa Blake
“Fabulous!”— Melissa Van Hoosen
“Sirenland allowed me to be away and in the middle of a community at the same time. There’s something about the place that is like being on a magical deserted island—but not alone.” – Lauren Johnson
“I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew the location would be fabulous, and assumed the participants would probably be sophisticated and maybe even fabulous, but much more than that the participants were funny, authentic, unique and generous—and people I don’t want to part company with. The instructors were unassuming and unique—and most of the writers were kind and clever (but mostly kind) and people I wanted to hang out with and get to know.”— Carol Richards
“The conference exceeded my expectations in virtually every way and even fulfilled many I didn’t know I had (or should have!). From what Jim [Shepard]saw in any story to his critiquing and teaching methods as a whole, to all the great friends and colleagues I made, to of course the amazing surroundings, both outside and in, the conference was a joy.”— Eric Grunwald
“Sirenland is well named for I was lured to this place and these beautiful people. This is hard-working and intensive in a way that engages all your senses and sensibilities. Prepare to work hard. Prepare! I was challenged by the exacting demands of Jim Shepard’s class and richly rewarded by his with, literary insight and unique teaching style. Dani, Michael and Hannah were bountiful in generosity of spirit and inspiration. I loved every breath here and every segment of this beautifully conceived and orchestrated writer’s workshop.” – Jane H. Percy
“Sirenland is one of the two best workshops experiences I’ve had in eleven years since I attended my first workshop. In both cases, this was entirely because of the workshop instructor and his approach to how writing should be taught and how a writing student (and we are all students in some sense, however long we’ve been doing this) should be treated—seriously, with respect and consideration.”— Vivian Dorsel
“This experience, in an extraordinary vertical setting, inspires me to continue climbing toward my goals. The supportive and constructive nature of the workshop, its leaders and participants, feels life-altering.” – Jennie Reeves
“I left Sirenland feeling it is less of a place than a concept, created by a small group of gifted artists who understand writing as a calling, and that those among us who must heed the song crave a safe and beautiful haven, enchantment, community and nurturance. Sirenland gives us this and so much more. It feeds the soul, and like a dream you want to return to, it lingers.” — Adele Bertei
